Navigating the Waters
by CK1013
Summary: Set 16 years after the end of S6... Lucas and Peyton's life isn't working out as planned. Luke is angry with the world and Peyt has fallen head over heels in love with her best friend, Brooke. Can Lucas let go of his anger and can Peyt & Brooke start a life together? Find out as they navigate the waters of life together. Breyton


**Author's Note:**

**Welcome back everyone! This is the new fic I have started. This is very different than Two Sides of the Same Coin, even though it starts out similar. As I said in my profile, I DO NOT LIKE the character of Lucas. So while he obviously plays a role in this fic, he once again will not be shown as a great person. However, he will not influence this fic as he did the last. This fic takes place 16 years after the end of season 6 and I'm operating under the assumption that S7-9 did not happen in this world I'm writing. Hope you enjoy it and please review!**

CHAPTER ONE

Green eyes flutter open and are met with darkness in the room. Peyton Sawyer-Scott shifts from her previous sleeping position in the bed but stops when she feels the weight of her partner on her right arm, holding her in place. Instead of trying to move, she just smiles, allowing her mind to re-live the memories of just a few hours ago.

Lost in those thoughts, a light illuminates in the otherwise dark room and Peyton's head snaps over to her left to see her cell phone lighting up indicating an incoming call. The vibration of the phone begins to rattle on the nightstand next to her and she reaches over as quickly as she can to get it, hoping it will not wake the one beside her.

"Hey," she whispers into the phone after accepting the call. "I'm sorry I didn't call."

"No worries," a sixteen-year old Sawyer Scott says from the other end of the phone line, sounding far to awake and chipper for the late hour. "I just got in and I went to check in but all I found was Dad sound asleep in his office as usual. Are you with Aunt Brooke?"

Peyton can't help but smile when she glances over at Brooke next to her in the bed, her tanned bare back the only part of her otherwise naked body not covered by the bed sheet. The brunette moans softly in her sleep, only moving slightly out of her previous position, just enough for Peyton to pull her arm out and stand.

"Yeah… I must have fallen asleep. Let me just leave her a note and I'll be home soon," Peyton offers, feeling more tired than she thought she was once her feet hit the floor.

"Don't be silly… just sleep there. It's late. Besides… it's not like Dad's going to notice anyway," Sawyer offers.

Peyton quickly scans the room looking for her clothes that had been tossed aside earlier that evening. When she can't seem to find anything that looks like hers in the dark, and not wanting to turn on the light to disturb Brooke, she pulls Brooke's robe off the back of the door hanger and swings it over her body.

"Are you sure," Peyton asks, her voice a bit louder now as she moves out of the bedroom and out to the balcony in the back of the house.

She had no idea how she got to this place in life. Well… she has some idea, but it all seems like a blur.

She and Lucas had tried to start their lives out in L.A. all those years ago, and for several years, it had worked. But in the end, neither of them was truly happy so far away from their friends and family and they made the decision together as a family to move back to Tree Hill so Sawyer could grow up there. Sawyer was still young, so she didn't seem to have any problem with the move and their old house was still there waiting for them to live in it. It was easy to return… it felt right… like they were going home again.

Once she was home, she knew instantly that things would be alright again. Being back in her hometown with her best friend by her side made her laugh and smile in ways that she had missed those four years they lived apart. Red Bedroom Records began to thrive once again, with Peyton and Haley working side by side to make it the best recording label they could. Hundreds of artists travelled there each year to record. Peyton's professional life really began to bloom just as her personal life started to suffer.

It wasn't long after they returned to Tree Hill that Lucas started to grow distant and get frustrated with life in general it seemed. The once doting father to little Sawyer became reclusive almost, spending most of his time locked away in his office working on his next novel. Peyton hardly ever saw him and when she did, he would look at her with frustration instead of love. She should have known right then and there that something wasn't right, but it took many more years before that hat finally fell.

With each novel Lucas wrote, he became more and more successful, but he also became more and more angry. It was suddenly as if Peyton had forced him to move back to Tree Hill and he daily expressed his regret about their move, causing the fighting to begin. It had never stopped since and poor Sawyer Scott had grown up not with the two loving parents she read about in her father's first novel, but instead with two parents who were so far detached from each other it was as if they barely knew one another at all.

Before Peyton had moved back, Brooke too had her share of struggles. While her professional life always seemed to flourish, her personal life never seemed to do the same. She tried to make things work with Julian… but in the end, she blamed the constant distance between them, with him having to go on location for movie shoots and her constant travel to New York for her career as the reason for their eventual break up. She kept in close contact with Peyton throughout the years the blonde was living in L.A. The two girls were as tight as ever, talking sometimes for hours on the phone each night. They made constant trips to visit one another and it was always when they were together that all their worries seemed to slip away and life could just be good again.

Neither girl had planned on anything more than friendship. But with Lucas and Peyton fighting more, the record label thriving and Sawyer still only five years old, the blonde found herself running to Brooke more often than not as an escape from her reality. One night, during a very intense fight with Lucas, Peyton had taken Sawyer and they had fled to her best friend's house just a mile or so away.

"Hey Peyt," Brooke had said as her front door opened and Peyton came walking in carting a sleeping Sawyer in her arms. The brunette had stood up from the couch, discarding her glass of wine and mounds of paperwork, all her attention suddenly focused on her blonde best friend and goddaughter. "What's wrong?" she asked as she took Sawyer from Peyton and noticed the streaks of tears on her best friend's face.

The two girls didn't speak but instead carefully took Sawyer into her bedroom, Peyton's old room when she had lived there with Brooke, and tucked her in before closing the door softly.

Brooke wrapped an arm around her best friend, pulling her close and feeling Peyton's tears falling from her eyes onto her shoulder. The girls made their way to the couch where Peyton snuggled into Brooke's side.

"I don't think I can do this anymore," Peyton said through her tears, causing Brooke to hold her impossibly closer. "He's changed so much Brooke… he's not the same guy he used to be."

Brooke nodded her head, knowing they had been having problems and not wanting to insert herself into their marital problems. It had worked for her in years passed… being a shoulder to lean on and an ear to lend but nothing more. Brooke had already realized a year or so prior, with Peyton's return to Tree Hill that she had much stronger feelings for her best friend than Peyton did for her. She wasn't sure when or what made her figure it out, but by then she was well aware that she was in love with the girl that sat next to her that night.

"It's all going to be okay," Brooke offered as Peyton's tears slowed. Brooke leaned forward and grabbed her glass of wine on the table, handing it to Peyton who gulped it down in one go. "What can I do?"

"Can we stay here tonight?" Peyton had asked.

"Peyton… you never have to ask to stay here. You and Sawyer… you are always welcome! This is your home too… you may not live here anymore but it will always be your home," Brooke explained.

"Good," Peyton says shifting so she is once again leaning on Brooke. "Because I don't want to be alone anymore. Even when he's there… I just feel so alone."

"You are never alone," Brooke said, running her hand along Peyton's shoulder. "You have Sawyer and Nathan and Haley… and you will always have me."

Peyton glanced up at her then, her eyes still filled with some unshed tears.

"I love you B. Davis," she had said leaning forward to kiss the brunette's cheek.

But she had missed.

It was a simple mistake… her vision blurry due to tears and her emotions heightened due to the stress of her fight with Lucas. But she had missed Brooke's cheek and her lips lightly grazed the brunette's own.

When the two of them pulled away, their eyes locked on one another. Brooke could feel her heart starting to beat rapidly in her chest… so much so that she was sure Peyton could hear it. She had never disclosed her feelings to anyone about Peyton and it made it easier to hide. But now… now Brooke wasn't so sure she had the self-control to hold herself back.

But she didn't need it. It was Peyton that leaned forward then and fully captured Brooke's lips in an intense kiss. Instantly, Peyton could feel it. The spark… the passion… the love. She knew in that moment that things would never be the same.

And they weren't.

The two women… after having gone through so many things together in the past, let their emotions carry them that night as they made love for hours. They forgot about the world and instead focused only on each other.

But as adults, they knew that they had to talk about what happened the next day. They agreed that they had both been caught up in the moment… Peyton with feeling lonely and sad and Brooke a little intoxicated due to the wine she had been drinking and left it at that. They agreed that it wouldn't change things between them and Peyton left shortly after the next morning to try to make her marriage work.

Only her marriage never did recover. Things only got worse and worse and as they did, she kept running to Brooke. Before she knew it, the blonde was falling in love with her best friend… and there was nothing she could do to stop it.

"Mom? Did you hear me?" Sawyer's voice rings out over the phone again, pulling Peyton back to reality. "I said go back to sleep."

"Alright… I'll be home in time for breakfast in the morning," Peyton says her eyes looking out to the stars in the night. "I love you."

"I love you too mom," Sawyer says before ending the call.

Peyton stands there with her arms wrapped around herself. It's chilly in Tree Hill but now she's too awake to go back to bed and too caught up in her own thoughts to move. Instead she just stands there, enjoying the view when she feels hands reach around her back and lock in front of her. The blonde smiles, turning so she is now face to face with Brooke.

"What are you doing out here?" the brunette's raspy voice asks with a slight tone of seduction behind it. "Come back to bed."

"Sawyer called," Peyton replies and Brooke's smile drops a little and her hands drop from Peyton's waist.

"Is she okay?" Brooke asks with concern behind the words. "It's late."

"Yeah… she just wanted to check in. I didn't plan on sleeping over," Peyton says reaching out and pulling Brooke back to her. She bends down and places a tender kiss on the smaller girl's lips. "But then again… I guess I never really do."

"I like when you do," Brooke says trying to hide the sadness in her voice. She's made a promise to herself not to push Peyton into anything more than what they have.

It's been eleven years that the two of them have been doing this together now. Eleven years of a secret affair that means everything to Brooke. Their friendship has only grown and every day Brooke has fallen more and more in love with the blonde. She's never hidden the fact that she wants more… but she's never pushed it either.

"I wish I could every night," Peyton says, her lips traveling to the brunette's neck and lightly nipping the skin. Her warm breath causes Brooke to shiver and her whole body to heat up.

"You could," Brooke says without really thinking about it. She realizes her mistake when Peyton removes her lips and stands straight up, eyes locking with her own.

"Brooke…"

"I know," Brooke says moving away from Peyton and over to the balcony to look out at the night, much like Peyton had been doing when Brooke appeared. "It's complicated."

"That's because it is," Peyton says, moving toward Brooke and standing next to her. "I have Sawyer to think about and…"

"Lucas," Brooke fills in, hating the way she says his name with such hostility.

But she knows that her anger toward him isn't just because he has the girl she wants to be with, but also because of the person he has become. He is angry and mean and hardly ever visits or comes to family gatherings. She can see the loneliness behind her best friend's eyes and it practically kills her every time knowing that he's the reason for that look.

"You know I love you right?" Peyton asks her eyes staring intently at Brooke. "You know I'm in love with you and not him?"

"Then why?" Brooke asks, a bit louder than she intended. "Why stay with him Peyt? He just makes the two of you miserable! Let him go back to L.A. Get a divorce… stay here with me… be with me. Every night," Brooke urges despite trying to stop herself.

"You know I can't do that!" Peyton shouts out in frustration.

She had thought it over so many times. She had even planned to leave on more than one occasion. But she was so afraid. Afraid of the man Lucas had become. The last thing she wanted was to be the one to leave… for him to find out what she had been doing all these years and threaten to take her daughter away from her.

"Sawyer is not a little girl anymore Peyton! She's sixteen years old!"

"It's only two more years Brooke," Peyton says reaching out and taking Brooke's hand in her own. When Brooke tries to pull it away Peyton doesn't let her. "Just two more years."

"I don't know if I can wait that long," Brooke says honestly.

Their eyes stay fixed on each other for what feels like eternity. Eventually Peyton let's go of Brooke's hand turns away.

"I know it isn't fair of me to ask you to wait… but right now… that's what I need you to do."

"You're right," Brooke says. "It isn't fair." She begins to walk toward the door and back into the house, but stops and looks at Peyton one more time. "I have to go to New York again in a few days. I'll be gone for a couple of weeks," she explains.

Peyton's head whips around in surprise.

"I thought you said you weren't going back for over a month!"

"Yeah… well, plans changed. I was going to talk to you about it tonight but…"

Peyton's hand raises in the air stopping Brooke mid-sentence. The blonde had arrived at Brooke's house overjoyed to see her after not having seen her for two weeks prior. She practically ripped the brunette's clothes off the second she shut the front door, not giving Brooke much of a chance to say anything.

"When do you leave?"

"Tuesday."

The blonde runs a hand through her tangled and curly hair. She sighs out, frustrated for so many reasons.

"I'm going to miss you," she says, biting on her lower lip.

Brooke can't hide the smile that peeks out of the corners of her lips. Sure… she may not be happy with their current situation, but she is totally and completely in love with Peyton and sometimes that feeling just takes over. She moves toward the blonde, once again wrapping her arms around her and standing up on her toes so her face is mere inches away from Peyton's.

"How much?" she whispers seductively.

"I'll show you."


End file.
